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DC Food Not Bombs is an adhocratic group that shares vegan and vegetarian meals to promote healthy eating, peace, non-violence, community, and the reduction of waste in our economies. Barrett Jones made this short video of some of the behind-the-scenes preparation and serving.
[Cross posted to DC Food Not Bombs]
WIC Sign at Ward 8 Farmers Market
In a previous post, we explored a new Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program that helps low-income mothers buy more fresh produce at farmers markets. The new coupons are known as WIC Fruit and Vegetable Cash Value Vouchers, or FVC. This second post in the series looks at benefits of a similar nutrition assistance program already in place–the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)–and yet more stumbling blocks in implementation of such programs.
First, the good news.
According to a report by the Community Food Security Coalition based on USDA numbers, 2.3 million WIC participants received farmers market benefits in 2008, spending about $20 million. During that year, 16,016 farmers and 3,367 farmers markets were authorized to accept FMNP coupons. The USDA awarded grants to each state, amounting to $301,302 for D.C. in 2009, while Maryland received $341,338 (Virginia received $291,212 in 2008, but declined to participate last year).
Also according to the report, evaluation of the program in Washington state showed that WIC recipients who used vouchers increased their knowledge and consumption of fruits and vegetables, and planned to keep coming to farmers markets in the future. Several D.C.-area markets–including the Crossroads market in Takoma Park and three of the markets run by FRESHFARM Markets–established very popular grant-funded “double dollar” programs, which matched the value of vouchers, increasing shoppers’ buying power and farmers’ income.
This works out for everyone–at least until bureaucracy or lack of participation get in the way.
Liz Falk, the former manager of WIC and food stamp programs for FRESHFARM Markets, says she saw very little in the way of advertising for the WIC FMNP. D.C.’s WIC administrators and the Department of Health could not — or would not — devote much funding to develop and distribute marketing materials, and different agencies were reluctant even to add each others’ information to existing materials. The situation will likely hold true for the FVC program.
More worrisome still: Falk says that “red tape is covering so much of what’s possible with these programs.”
The program’s certification process itself is problematic. As our first post mentioned, D.C. offers just one training for farmers who want to participate in the WIC FMNP, Senior FMNP, and FVC programs. (It’s set for this Wednesday, March 10 in Greenbelt, MD, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
By contrast Maryland offers multiple trainings on 13 different dates in Greenbelt, Annapolis, Hagerstown, Baltimore, and Denton. Each lasts an hour–from 10 to 11 a.m. or 1 to 2 p.m.
This is not to say that Maryland gets it all right: it has separate trainings for the FMNP and FVC programs, and each is administered by a different department – FMNP by the Department of Agriculture; FVC by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
All of this is enough to make a farmer’s head spin, and tempt her to drop participating all together.
“[Farmers] want to come, they want to sell produce, and they want to make a living,” says Falk. “Willingness to participate in a WIC program is primarily determined by perceived man-hours needed on the bureaucratic back-end to get enrolled and stay enrolled,” wrote Dan White, DC Food For All contributor, on our listserv recently. Raise the hurdles too high, and farmers will decide the program isn’t worth the earnings.
Crossroads Farmers Market staff have also seen a problem with reimbursement. This market, located just outside the District line in Takoma Park, MD, sees the majority of its customers come in with some form of nutrition assistance. In the three years that Crossroads has been in existence and accepting programs like the WIC FMNP, staff have heard numerous complaints from farmers who say that the reimbursement procedure is complex and the timeline is short. Unlike cash or bank checks, the WIC checks have expiration dates. Once the farmers and customers do successfully exchange a payment, the sellers often have to wait weeks or months to see it turn into cash. Similar problems loom for the new FVC program.
As the last post mentioned, DC Food for All members are asking whether this system can be improved. To learn more and become part of the conversation, join the D.C. Food for All discussion group.
Most days, clients of Bread for the City’s pantry take a number, wait their turn, and receive a standard bag of pre-packaged groceries. These bags are carefully balanced to provide a rounded set of food items – canned fruit and vegetables, a packet of rice, a meat item, etc, in proportion with the size of a client’s family. Recently, however, we started to change things up a bit.
In the past few years, as part of our mission to serve and care for people in an atmosphere of dignity and respect, we’ve overhauled our pantry menu to feature an array of more nutritious items. The results of that Nutrition Initiative were really positive: healthier diets and higher client satisfaction.
Now we are experimenting with pantry innovation once again: exploring opportunities to enable client choice in our pantry menu. We envision a food pantry in which people can select which food they bring home, just like they would at a grocery store.
To be sure, this would be a logistical challenge. But there’s quite a few reasons why client choice would be an effective process. For one, Bread for the City is not the only source of food for our clients; many clients may already have sufficient amounts of certain kinds of food, but may be 
in greater need of others. Some of our clients have special dietary needs that make certain foods especially important, and others not helpful at all. And most of all, as our nutrition consultant Sharon Gruber says: “one of the most debilitating things about living with a low income is a lack of control — and food is one of the most basic things that we can or cannot control in our lives.”
Louise Thundercloud, a longtime Bread for the City client and community activist, wrote about that very point on this blog, explaining that a lack of control over food “is related to the problem of very low self esteem: feeling as though you deserve only what is given to you, because you feel so terrible about yourself.”
So on January 28th, we transformed our Southeast Center food pantry into a makeshift grocery store. Armed with a reusable bag, clients selected every component of their groceries. Bread for the City staff engaged directly with clients to help put together food bags. Clients pondered their choices, happily snatching favorites while politely declining other items they might not want or need. Staff laughed with clients and chatted about the choice experiment.
“Choice is much better! I get to pick what I want. This month I have enough cans and dry goods, I just needed meat and fresh veggies.”
Indeed we noticed that, when given options, clients displayed a clear preference to avoid waste, and many even took pride in leaving food behind for others.
We asked each client survey questions after shopping, and 97% of participants rated the experience a 5 out of 5. I asked one beaming client what she thought, and she replied, “I love this because I get to pick out the best options for me. Please keep it going!”
Stay tuned for more results of this exciting new experiment…
[Cross-posted from Beyond Bread.]
Over the last two years of leading service projects in Washington DC, I have volunteered with several soup kitchens and homeless shelters. I respect and admire the work these organizations do. They help some of our most forgotten citizens.
One thing I love about some of these organizations is that they do great work rescuing unwanted food. For example, last year Bread for the City started its Glean for the City program, which gathers vegetables from local farms — all for free. And one of the better known examples of food-reclamation in the country was founded here in DC in 1989 — the DC Central Kitchen started off making meals for the homeless from the leftovers from the Presidential Inauguration festivals. These days, they rescue more than 600,000 pounds of food a year.
But in some cases at several social service organizations, I see a large amount of food waste ends up in the trash. I often wonder: Can these organizations compost? Is there a way to ‘close the loop’ on this process, to give back to the fields that produce the food? In response to these questions I raised to the DCFoodforAll Google Group, representatives from the Common Good City Farm, located near Howard University, say that the farm will start accepting compost from community members.
This may be just the start of a series of such community composting opportunities. In another response to these questions, the Director of Kitchen Operations at Miriam’s Kitchen, Steven Badt, noted that — even if there were local sites to compost — even a well-run service organization like Miriam’s would be daunted by the volunteer resources that regular composting would require. Also, there’s the question of volume: Badt estimates that the Kitchen ends up with fifty or a hundred or more gallons of food waste every day — “There is no way a community garden could handle/manage the amount.” He did note, however, that Miriam’s Kitchen will switch trash hauling companies in January 2011 to a company that does industrial composting. (This is just one of the green initiatives that they are undertaking there. Also they are looking at hiring a night green cleaning crew for their building. )
There are other opportunities on the horizon. Included in the DC Government’s proposed Healthy Schools Act, introduced by DC Council member Mary Cheh and Chairman Vincent Gray, there will be money set aside for a DC Schools compost pilot project. This could be a way to start a large scale composting program.
DC wouldn’t have the first large scale composting program in the nation. San Francisco implemented a mandatory composting law with fines for residents or businesses that throw anything compostable in the trash. 
(When the law went into effect, most of the city was already in compliance, because many companies and landlords already changed their practices.) Currently the city of Denver has a pilot residential composting program happening. And in Milwaukee, Will Allen of Growing Power says that his organization compost more than twelve million pounds of food waste yearly that came from a variety of different sources, from breweries to private homes.
Can Washington DC become another city to require composting? We are already the first city to install a bag tax. What would intermediary steps look like? A composting law could be years away. Could we start picking up small qualities of compost from social services agencies to take to community gardens? What are other ideas?
One of the first steps we can take is to support the Healthy Schools Act: On March 26 DC Council is holding a hearing on the Healthy Schools Act at 11 am in Room 500 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
What if the DC government created something like Baltimore Public Schools’ Great Kids Farm, a 33 acre educational farm in Catonsville, Maryland in response to this act? 
Let’s show support for the DC Schools Compost Pilot Program. This could be the first step towards closing the loop in getting food waste back to the land instead of the landfill.
Here are more details about the March 26 hearing:
Anyone wishing to testify at the hearing should contact Ms. Aukima Benjamin, staff assistant to the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, at 724-8062, or via e-mail at abenjamin@dccouncil.us. Witnesses should bring 15 copies of their written testimony to the hearing. If possible, witnesses should submit a copy of their testimony in advance of the hearing to abenjamin@dccouncil.us. Witnesses will be allowed a maximum of three (3) minutes for oral presentation.
If you are unable to testify at the hearing, written statements are encouraged and will be made a part of the official record. Copies of written statements should be submitted either to the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, or to Ms. Cynthia Brock-Smith, Secretary to the Council, Room 5 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20004. The record will close at the end of the business day on April 2, 2010.
Thanks to Steven Badt, Greg Boom, Rebecca Kantar, Greg Plotkin, Jenn Roccanti, and Carl Rollins for their assistance on researching this topic on the DCFoodforAll Google Group.
Beet Street Gardens is a demonstration project combining two of my greatest passions—community gardening and harm reduction. The basic model of Beet Street is to bring gardens to social service organizations which work with marginalized adults, teens, and their families.
by Katie Aldworth
Hey Urban Gardening Enthusiasts! Do you remember your first garden? Beet Street is going to bring first gardens to four organizations working with marginalized communities–a shelter for homeless teen mothers, a domestic violence shelter, a harm reduction organization working with sex workers, and (if funding allows) a shelter working to end homelessness for people living with psychiatric disabilities.
Our Inspiration: Beet Street is inspired by the model of many a community garden: get a community together and build a garden—a safe, healthy and transformative space–with a focus on learning (skills, sustainability, food science, and nutrition) and growing (soil, food, urban sanctuary, identity, community, economic opportunity). With this model, many community gardens in low-income neighborhoods are addressing very real economic and social divisions that are often associated with limited access to nutritious food, safe outdoor space, and recreational and skill-building opportunities.
Expanding Community: Among the hardest to reach people and families are those dealing with crises such as homelessness, domestic violence, drug use, and poverty. For many, there are several barriers to participating in existing community gardens. Perhaps most important to witness is the barrier of real and perceived discrimination and stigma while engaging in an unknown community space.
Taking it to the (Beet) Street: Beet Street Gardens will strive to address these barriers by building gardens on-site at social service organizations that are already known as a safe space for their participants. From March to October of 2010, Beet Street demonstration project will plant, maintain, and harvest—through teaching and collaboration—sustainable food-producing gardens at three organizations in DC. Workshops and information sharing sessions will be facilitated on the topics of gardening, food, health, nutrition, and cooking. The organizations–a harm reduction agency working with sex workers (HIPS, yay!), a shelter for homeless teen mothers, and a harm reduction based domestic violence shelter–were chosen based on need, their reputation with marginalized communities and commitment to harm reduction principles.
Goals: In this demonstration phase, the goal of Beet Street is simply to cultivate community and improve quality of life through gardening and information sharing. As these gardens and our relationship with organizations and individuals take root, we will expand services with the vision of providing economic opportunities and job training. The program will build bridges to the larger urban gardening community and green economy in a constant pursuit of positive change.
We are raising funds on Kickstarter and have raised our minimum goal of $5,500. Yay!! This goal was set when we were planning three gardens. Additional funding will help us bring a garden to this fourth organization and help to increase the capacity of all our gardens. Also, the more funding we receive, the more we will be able to pursue entrepreneurial activities to move people and the future of the organization toward self-sustainability!!
Check out the project on Kickstarter or become a fan on Facebook.
[UPDATE from our friends at Common Good: The Council has explicitly APPROVED the funding reprogramming for the Park at Gage Eckington. So we are back on track! Thanks to all who expressed your support.]
Common Good City Farm – featured often here on the DC Food For All, a key locus of the local urban agriculture movement – is located on a 3-acre site where the Gage-Eckington School once stood. For over two years the communities of LeDroit Park, Bloomingdale and Eckington have worked with the Mayor and his offices to make sure the site turns into a public community park space. It has been a true grassroots effort, with many people pitching in to overcome challenges and build a community center for health, recreation, and education.
Today it faces another challenge.
This morning, the community discovered that Councilmember Harry Thomas (Ward 5) added an item to the DC Council agenda to “Disapprove” of the funds for the park being as planned allocated to the Mayor’s office.
Such a resolution would essentially stall progress on the development of this site and support for Common Good City Farm. This action is in baffling contrast to Thomas’s own previous declarations — such as an assurance that he wrote to constituents, stating that “I will continue to support a contract process that moves this project forward and ensures its completion.”
Please help Common Good City Farm and our neighbors. As soon as you can, please write to or call the office of Harry Thomas, Committee on Libraries, Parks & Recreation (hthomas@dccouncil.us (202) 724-8028) (or the other committee members listed below).
Declare your support for the Gage-Eckington park development, and your opposition to Thomas’s resolution. Assure our leaders that we will hold them responsible for obstruction of positive community development such as this.
Committee Members:
David A. Catania dcatania@dccouncil.us (202) 724-7772
Kwame R. Brown kbrown@dccouncil.us (202) 724-8174
Phil Mendelson pmendelson@dccouncil.us (202) 724-8064
Yvette Alexander yalexander@dccouncil.us (202) 724-8068
After 9/11 we were told that if we had only connected the dots, we might have stopped the attacks. If we had assembled the fragments of information we had, we would have put together a picture. The same is true in understanding poverty. We have to connect the dots among disparate problems faced by struggling families, problems that may not seem related, yet interact and reinforce and magnify one another.
So the concept of BRIDGE, to map the social services available in the Washington area, may give both providers and individuals a way of connecting the dots, of navigating among the varied agencies to address disparate problems. It can provide a gateway into the multiple forms of assistance that many families need.
-David ShiplerPulitzer Prize Winning Author of The Working Poor
From food pantries and meal programs, to shelters, job training, health services, arts and recreation programs, community gardens, and overall case management, a wealth of non-profit organizations and service providers exist to serve DC citizens in need. But a disconnect often exists between knowledge and access to many of these invaluable services. The BRIDGE (Bridging Resources in D.C. to Guide and Educate) guidebook, a pocket-sized publication created by students in The George Washington University’s Human Services program, seeks to “bridge” these gaps between availability and access to the valuable social services throughout the district.
The BRIDGE guidebook, featuring 64 pages of information about over 550 social service sites throughout the District, is now available for service providers and individuals throughout the District of Columbia.
The BRIDGE Project started a little over a year ago as a serendipitous turn of events. Every year, the students from the George Washington University’s Human Services program help to run the University’s version of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. The weeklong slew of events includes a food drive, poetry slam, Hunger banquet, and culminates in students’ participation in Fannie Mae’s Help the Homeless Walkathon. During the Walkathon in November of 2008, Director and Professor of the Human Services Program, Honey Nashman, approached us with an idea to map the social services available throughout the city. We were given the unique opportunity to serve as teaching assistants and lead this newly formed class project aimed at mapping the social services available in the District of Columbia. We gladly accepted with little idea of how things would turn out, or how big the project would become.
Having worked with multiple organizations throughout our three plus years as Human Services majors at GW, we were able to quickly make contacts at Bread for the City, DC Central Kitchen, and their supporting network of social service providers: HAFA (Healthy and Affordable Food for All). With their guidance, and the foundation provided by the DC Food Finder, we worked with 13 students to collect information, update, and map over 550 service providing organizations throughout the D.C. area.
For more information, or to find out how you or your organization can request copies of the BRIDGE guidebook, please contact Natalie Kaplan and Lee Goldstein at hmsr152project@gmail.com. Please visit our website to follow our BRIDGE BLOG and learn more about the current class’s work. From the website, you can view an electronic version of the BRIDGE guidebook and help us track our progress through the Distribution Feedback Form. Additionally, if you find listings that are no longer accurate, information that needs updating, or another site you think should be included, you can fill out the Site Update Form listed on the website as well.
Thank you for all you do to make Washington, D.C. a better community for its residents, and with your help we look forward to making the BRIDGE publication as useful a resource as possible!
One of DC’s newest school garden teachers wants to enlist you in a national movement to grow sustainable food gardens at every school in the country. And all you have to do (right now) is CAST A VOTE FOR CHANGE for Universal School Gardens.
by Ethan Genauer
When I started volunteering this winter as a garden science teacher with Washington Youth Garden, entering one 3rd-grade classroom every week to help instill knowledge and enthusiasm by the children for the wonders of nature, I had no idea that this experience would inspire me to initiate a national call for Universal School Gardens.
But when I witnessed the children’s smiles and eyes light up in the course of planting seeds and watching them sprout into seedlings and grow, my appreciation deepened for the many reasons why school gardens are gaining popularity and have an excellent track record for enhancing the educational learning and natural curiosity of young people. “Every student should be free to enjoy the incomparable thrill of tasting fresh healthy food that he or she had a direct hand in growing,” I thought, “and every school in America should sprout a garden!”
That’s why this March 2010, as spring fast approaches, I am asking you to join me in expressing support for the mission of “Good Food For All Kids: A Garden at Every School.” Simply by casting your vote for the principle of Universal School Gardens in the 2010 Ideas for Change in America contest sponsored by Change.org, you can help move this idea one important step closer from inspiration to reality.
After voting concludes on Friday, March 12th, the 10 most popular ideas will then be transformed into national grassroots social change campaigns. The staff at Change.org will reach out directly to relevant decision-makers to engage them on the winning ideas, and they will work with each winner to create a grassroots campaign and promote their idea nationwide. Already, “Good Food For All Kids: A Garden at Every School” was one of the top 3 ideas in the “Food and Agriculture” category in the first round. Now, we are playing to win the final round!
Although my vision for Universal School Gardens is ambitious, I believe that now is indeed the ideal moment for a new nationwide mobilization of Americans dedicated to the common purpose of achieving this delicious dream. We have extraordinary political momentum on our side. For example, the Obama administration has stated its commitment to putting an end to childhood hunger by 2015, and First Lady Michelle Obama recently launched her signature “Let’s Move” initiative aiming to combat the nation’s crisis of childhood obesity through strategies for healthier schools and better children’s fitness. Establishing sustainable food gardens at schools across America should be a key component of both of these efforts.
And we have a clear legacy of success to build on: Thousands of edible gardens have already been established at schools in every U.S. state. Educators have produced an abundance of garden-focused curricular standards in all subjects, from science and math to English and art, as well as the empirical evidence to demonstrate why school gardens are a fantastic educational tool and define best practices. A wealth of school gardening websites and resources is available to provide practical instruction.
After experiencing one of the coldest and toughest winters in United States history, with countless families struggling in the grip of a severe prolonged economic recession that has caused a rising tide of childhood hunger, this year many American children are anticipating spring with special fervor. When the snow is all gone and flowers once again begin to bloom, why not celebrate all across the country by planting a wave of new school gardens?
Ultimately, committing to the realization of good food for all kids may be one of the best ways that we can rebuild local economies while proving that investment in the health, nutrition and future of America’s young people will no longer be sacrificed to the convenience of serving them the cheap, bland, uniform, unhealthy processed foods that have become the standard school menu. Only when each and every student has the unhindered opportunity to access the daily nourishment of healthy foods will we be able to honestly claim that no children are being left behind.
It is no longer a secret that the diet of America’s youth needs to radically improve. Hunger, bad nutrition and obesity among children are leading causes of health risks and often contribute to poor classroom performance. A study by Feeding America (pdf) asserts that “food insecurity and hunger, together with other correlates of poverty, can dramatically alter the architecture of children’s brains, making it impossible for them to fulfill their potential.” By planting a garden at every school in America, we will ensure that every child has the opportunity to benefit from eating more fresh healthy foods. Let’s make 2010 the year that the idea of universal school gardening takes off as a force for positive change in U.S. education!
Ethan Genauer is a volunteer with Washington Youth Garden, helping to bring garden science into DC classrooms. Before moving to DC in 2009, he lived in New Mexico for several years, where he worked with sustainable community farms and led activities to increase youth engagement with sustainable food systems. In addition to seeking your vote for school gardens in the contest at Change.org, Ethan is inviting folks to join the new “School Gardens Across America” group at Facebook.
Food and Health: the two go hand in hand. In many areas of the country, food insecurity, poverty and obesity are also terms that go hand in hand. Safeway is in the neighborhood one day and gone the next. This is the reality of urban communities where fast food restaurants dominate the food landscape. Corner grocery stores fill in the gaps for full stop supermarkets, but the pickings are slim to none when it comes to local and organic produce — and the fruits and vegetables are expensive and not exactly fresh. In these neighborhoods, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease are pervasive and increasing.
Where is the food justice? One place to look is in Beltsville, Md.
The District of Columbia owns over 50 acres of land in Beltsville, which is managed by the University of the District of Columbia(UDC). There, UDC houses an agriculture experiment station used for research, investigation and experiments. Dr. James Allen, a UDC professor, was profiled in a recent Washington Post article on the benefits of pigweed, a leafy vegetable high in Vitamin A.
UDC, a land grant institution, stood to gain almost $10 million dollars from the recent farm bill for use with community outreach and research. While I truly appreciate and understand the need for research and experimentation, I also understand that 12% of households in DC suffer from food insecurity. And yet the majority of the land that DC owns is unused and unproductive.
This relatively unknown and underutilized gem in the coffers of the D.C. government can help decrease the incidence and prevalence of food insecurity in D.C.
Take, for instance, the Food Project in Boston and Ma’o Organic Farms in Hawaii which offer examples of the economic and health benefits of sustainable agriculture. Ma’o Organic Farms grows certified organic produce on 25 acres of land in a community plagued by food insecurity, teen pregnancy, juvenile arrests, cancer and heart disease; a community similar to some of D.C’s wards. The young participants in this program are involved in educational and youth leadership programs in addition to social enterprise. The Food Project engages teens in programs which encourage leadership as well as providing vocational skills through their CSA, farmers’ market and work with hunger relief organizations.
A similar program on D.C. owned farm in Beltsville has to be included in the war on hunger.
We live in an area filled with contradictions and uncertainty. The food secure and the food insecure intersect at hunger relief organizations which provide needed services. Most families, however, would prefer to feed themselves. Living with the uncertainty that food insecurity brings can trigger mental instability. Providing food directly to DC citizens from D.C. land could potentially provide the economic, social and health benefits needed to stem the tide of illness, unemployment, hunger and poverty. The time is now to use this land for food and families.
Fenty Farms anyone?
Vicki Reese is a healthcare professional and the owner of 5 A DAY CSA a company dedicated to providing fresh organic/ locally grown food and supporting farmers. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
WIC Sign at Ward 8 Farmers Market
A revamped Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program — which provides low-income single mothers with cash value vouchers good for fruits and vegetables — will soon include a farmers market component. This is a promising opportunity.
But the program is currently designed in ways that will create tension with recipients, farmers, and administrators.
As of October 1, 2009, the USDA required all states to implement the new WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). Through FMNP, WIC recipients can use the $6 to $15 monthly Fruit and Vegetable Cash Value Vouchers (or CVVs) just like cash to purchase a wide range of produce (PDF). (Check out a nice, clear explanation of the benefits here). The revised program will increase the voucher value for pregnant, breastfeeding, and partially breastfeeding women from $8 to $10 per month. And when the new market season rolls around, recipients can also use the vouchers at farmers markets. The previous WIC program, by contrast, provided only $30 worth of coupons for the entire May-through-November market season. It’s a significant increase.
But each state has the choice of whether to train and authorize farmers to accept those CVVs. Both Maryland and D.C. have opted in to the program. Virginia, on the other hand, recently canceled it.
Maryland has given the program every chance to succeed by including a variety of training options for farmers (including at market, and using trainers who have worked extensively with farmers market vendors). It will be pretty easy for farmers to become registered for the program, as the state will provide multiple trainings in different locations — and each only an hour-long.
D.C.’s Department of Health, by contrast, will offer only one training (on March 10th). It’s an all day training, and it’s in Greenbelt, MD.
The District has other options for facilitating participation in WIC programs at farmers markets. For instance, one Maryland official will recognize has expressed interest in recognizing the registration of farmers who undergo the D.C. FMNP training — freeing farmers up to sell across state and district lines. Although it would go through a different agency than the older FMNP, a similar agreement may be possible for the fruit and vegetable vouchers. As of now, D.C. has expressed no such interest in a reciprocal arrangement.
The arrangement has raised concerns among market coordinators and healthy food advocates alike. This is a program with proven positive results for both WIC recipients and farmers, and yet for farmers to participate in the District, they have only one chance to attend all-day training — in the middle of a critical season.
A group of DC Food for All members have recently been discussing the issue. As the March 10 training date approaches, we are asking:
How can D.C. make its program more conducive to farmers’ participation?
What might bring the program back for Virginians?
What is the best way to reach WIC recipients?
Those questions could shape a new campaign in the movement for fresh, healthy food for everyone. Join our discussion group to learn more.
Photo credit: A sign at the Ward 8 Farmers Market shows that vendors accept the WIC FMNP.